“Unsure” participants’ responses also indicated that they’re less likely to be taking proactive steps to improve their knowledge. Only 11 percent of them, for instance, have even calculated how much money they need to save for retirement, while 35 percent of the “on track” crowd has. In addition, just 25 percent of the “unsures” have gotten a good sense of how to generate ongoing retirement income from their savings, compared with 68 percent of the “on tracks.”

Women, sadly, fall more among the “unsures” than the “on tracks” — 66 percent of “unsures” who said they weren’t sure whether they’d be able to retire the way they want to were women. In addition, 33 percent of women said they were “unsure” about their retirement than said they felt “off track” (21 percent).

But women also say they could improve the situation; “unsure” women were more likely than “unsure” men to say that they don’t spend the time they should to understand their employer’s retirement plan (55 percent, compared with 41 percent) and don’t feel that they are doing as much as they should with their plan (57 percent, compared with 42 percent).

And women were significantly more likely than men (74 percent, compared with 66 percent) to say that their plan will be extremely or very important to ensuring a secure retirement. In fact, 58 percent of women said it would be their biggest source of retirement income, compared with 51 percent of men.